is this worrying the obama administration? is there support for this? >> well, obviously the united states is providing refueling facilities for the french warplanes so, yes, the united states is playing a role already. i think there are no comfortable choices and that's one of the realities across the region today, whether it's in mali or syria, post revolution egypt and libya. the united states doesn't have a grand strategy. it's looking at each case individually. the reality is that with islamists taking over northern mali, which is larger than france, just that part of it, this then creates a greater threat throughout the region. and unfortunately the outside world dithered for way too long in trying to figure out a response and to the earlier point, the fact is the africans can't do it themselves. there's been talk for two decades about creating an africa rapid deployment force and they haven't been able to bring it together, provide training, cohesion, command and control and as a result there is no local or regional alternative. >> africans -- it